Thursday, July 13th 2006
Here comes the last two, folks-
We’re saying goodbye to laughing Andy today. It’s our last day at Marc Graue Voiceover Studios here in beautiful Burbank. Marc, Andy, Cathy and Tina have been real nice to us over here and we want to thank them for sharing in the dream that never happened. So, a big dead Marc Maron Show salute to the staff of Marc Graue’s. SAAAAAAALLLUTE!
Here’s your second to last show:
John Dean, Former White House Counsel to Nixon, author, Conservatives Without Conscience
Mishna Wolff, Comedian, writer
Ellen Perry, Director, POV’s PBS Special, The Fall of Fujimori
Lonn Friend, author, Life on Planet Rock
Bruce Cherry’s Pitch of the Week
Lawton Smalls will bid us farewell
- July 13, 2006








My letter to Jon Sinton
Here's what I sent:
Greetings from your favorite nudge.
I hear that you and Marc Maron have not been able to reach an agreement about the new show.
I'd like to be able to say that I'm pissed at HIM for not taking the offer, but I'm afraid I can't.
From what I can see, you have been a stand-up guy through this whole mess with Maron and Danny the Living Satan Goldberg -- but I can't say the same for the rest of AAR.
This is a guy who left his new wife to come all the way to the East Coast for an experiment that might or might not work. That it worked beyond anyone's expectations is yes, due to the crack production staff -- people like Jon Larsen and the like who taught Marc Maron how to "do radio", but the main credit has to go to the man himself and his writers. I've been around a long time. I remember Bob and Ray, and I used to listen to old-time radio comedies. And Morning Sedition was the best thing to come along in a long time.
For absolutely no good reason, other than petty personal vindictiveness, Goldberg pulled the plug on what should have become AAR's crown jewel. So Maron moves BACK to LA, with the cats and all the rest of it, and is given a new show with no money. And once again, he makes the best of it. And barely six months in, he gets a visit from a suit who says, "We're pulling the plug."
It seems to me that Maron has worked for you guys in good faith all the way through. He was there for AAR when there were no paychecks; when there was no insurance; when it looked like AAR might fold. And the Board of Directors allowed Danny Goldberg to screw him over.
I'm sorry, but AAR owes Marc Maron whatever the heck he wants at this point. He's been betrayed by AAR twice now. I don't blame him a bit for being gun-shy and reluctant to try to sustain a bicoastal marriage for an employer who has twice treated him as disposable.
I know that it's a tough business. I know that AAR doesn't exactly have a lot of money to burn. But I also know that you were willing to allow the colossally overrated Al Franken to move his show to Minnesota in support of his supposed planned Senate run. The least AAR could do is allow Marc Maron to broadcast whatever morning show you had in mind from LA.
I've been with AAR since the beginning. I've been a good soldier for you guys. I support your work on my blog. I've supported AAR by becoming an associate, which gives me pretty much nothing. I bought a premium membership. I'm passionate about what AAR is SUPPOSED to be trying to do (though frankly, it looks sometimes as if you are overrun with Republican moles). But the way AAR has treated Marc Maron is sorely trying my patience.
I'm sure you know that Marc Maron has the kind of loyal fan base that most radio personalities envy. I'm sure you know about the Morning Seditionists site, where people from all over the world have become an online community in support not just of Marc Maron's work, but of Air America's by extension. And these people are Not Happy.
You may think that they have noplace else to go, but they do. There's music, which I suppose many people will return to. AAR simply cannot afford to alienate this many people in its audience.
I hope you will share this with the board. I hope you can get them to understand that when an employee gets screwed over by his employer twice, he's understandably reluctant to give the employer yet another chance to stab him in the back. I hope that the suits at AAR will swallow their pride and their need to be in control and do what it takes to get Marc Maron on the air.
It isn't over till the fat lady sings. And this particular fat lady ain't singing yet.
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The World Famous Thanks to Morning Sedition Brilliant at Breakfast
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com
"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast." -- Oscar Wilde
- parent
By brilliantatbreakfastJuly 13, 2006 - 6:42pm